If you build your own desktop PC, you'll find
hardware drivers for each component on each manufacturer's website.
You might not need them yourself, but you may need to send them to a developer if you're experiencing a problem with low - level software or
hardware drivers on your computer.
For example, many
hardware drivers include hardware utilities that run in the background and stay in your notification area.
To take advantage of it, an attacker would have to install a
new hardware driver, and then use that driver to crack the chipset and run code on the chipset processor itself.
It's great at fixing certain types of problems, like when a newly - installed app or
hardware driver breaks things.
When you install Windows, you'll need to install
hardware drivers provided by the hardware's manufacturer — motherboard chipset drivers, graphics card drivers, Wi - Fi drivers, and more.
To clean up
old hardware drivers after changing hardware and to clean up after uninstallers leaving a lot of junk behind.
Everything from software installation to
hardware drivers works differently on Linux, though, which can be daunting.
Windows will
download hardware drivers for most of your devices and keep those drivers up to date automatically if necessary.
You'll often have to download and install
hardware drivers from your computer manufacturer's website after the reinstall.
To know
what hardware drivers are installed on your computer and to view their details: Right - click Computer > Manage > System Tools > Computer Management > Device Manager.
This also has the benefit of using the
same hardware drivers included with your Chromebook for the Linux system, so everything should work well.
Unlike the above options for deferring updates, stopping Windows from updating
hardware drivers also works on the Windows 10 Home edition.
Ubuntu's
automated Hardware Drivers utility seeks out proprietary drivers for devices in your system, simplifying the task of grabbing the latest proprietary nVidia driver, for instance, so that you can enable Desktop Effects.
You may also want to use the 32 - bit edition if you have
proprietary hardware drivers that are only available in 32 - bit form, but this is very unlikely to happen on Linux — it should primarily apply to Windows users.
But you're probably just a normal Windows user, not someone
developing hardware drivers or working on the Windows source code at Microsoft.
Sure, you might occasionally want to reboot Windows to solve problems — you'll have to reboot after updating Windows and installing
many hardware drivers anyway.
Mandatory security updates are one thing, but Microsoft should allow PC users to have control over their
specific hardware drivers if they need it — even if this is just a hidden option you have to enable.
Registry problems can occur for many reasons, including references left behind after un-installation; incorrect removal of software; missing or
corrupt hardware drivers; or orphaned start - up programs.
Windows — especially Windows 10 — has a bad habit of installing new updates for
hardware drivers whether you want them or not.
When you uninstall the
existing hardware driver, the uninstaller could fail to clean up properly and leave some of these files behind.
A complete Windows reinstall rules out any software problems, unless there's a
faulty hardware driver that needs to be updated.
If your computer is infected with malware or has
unstable hardware drivers that cause blue screens, Safe Mode can help you fix it because those things aren't loaded the way they are when Windows starts normally.
It's like Safe Mode on Windows — it won't load third -
party hardware drivers or startup programs, so you can use this mode to fix problems if your Mac isn't working or booting properly.
The new kernel protections should also help developers who are responsible for building
Android hardware drivers detect kernel security bugs before shipping them to users.
In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the steps to successfully update
hardware drivers on your computer.
If you've set up your system properly, Windows takes snapshots of its settings, or restore points, before you make any major changes to your computer — install a
new hardware driver, a new program, or (frequently) the latest Windows update.
Luckily, Linux uses primarily open - source drivers, so you shouldn't need
old hardware drivers that are only available in 32 - bit form.
PC manufacturers will still be able to customize the computer's state after the refresh or reset — for example, adding their
own hardware drivers and any other software they want, including junkware like Superfish.
This also means that Linux environment can use all the same
hardware drivers provided with Chrome OS, ensuring good hardware support.
Hardware drivers for tools like mice and printers often add additional configuration panels to the Control Panel interface, for example.
The operating system exists solely to handle
the hardware drivers and run the browser and associated applications.